Designing Email Challenges for Remote Teaching and Learning
Free Online Presentation
Monday, March 28, 2022
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM CDT
Presented via Zoom
Registration Link
Teaching and learning has changed as a result of the pandemic, and many of those changes are here to stay. As many of our institutions continue to embrace more online instruction, e-mail based challenges can provide a flexible way to meet the needs of varied learner populations. These activities can provide a unique opportunity for participants learning in different modalities to engage with information literacy, research concepts and strategies, and resources available through the library (and beyond!). In an email challenge activity, participants receive a task each day, for five days, designed to build their skills around the challenge theme, such as advanced research techniques, finding funding, or identifying misinformation on social media. This approach to instruction allows for diverse participation by anyone with an internet connection and an email address regardless of their location, while also providing flexibility for asynchronous education. Whether you or the students you’re teaching are doing their work remotely, an email challenge may be the perfect fit for your library’s educational initiatives.
Join two librarians — one from a rural land and sea grant university and one from a liberal arts institution — to look at examples of what makes an email challenge successful (like tasks that are brief, engaging, and informative!). Together, we will review 1) a misinformation challenge inspired by the coronavirus pandemic, 2) a challenge built for students to take their research acumen to the next level, and 3) an approach to grants education as professional development aimed at anyone seeking to gain experience finding and writing grants. Participants will consider ways to adapt these challenges to their own organizational setting, and have the opportunity to brainstorm with each other and with the presenters on ways to bring these ideas to fruition.
Presenter bios
Jen Bonnet is a Social Sciences and Humanities Librarian at the University of Maine. She has co-designed a variety of email-based challenges on topics like misinformation, news literacy, racial justice, finding funding, and how to get published. Whenever possible, she is out camping, canoeing, or experimenting with baked goods.
Senta Sellers is a Business Librarian at Miami University in Ohio. She has had the opportunity to design a number of tutorials and electronic resources but this was her first email challenge. She enjoys hiking, traveling and painting.
This free presentation is sponsored by the ACRL University Libraries Section Professional Development Committee. It will take place on Monday, March 28, 2022 from 1 pm to 2 pm Central Time via Zoom. Register here: https://ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_X0-gI7FSSRaIyOSg5qE8Ag
If you can’t make this session but wish to view a recording later, please register so that you’ll receive an email that includes a link to the video of the presentation.
Please direct questions and concerns to Laura Gariepy (lwgariepy@vcu.edu) or Sam Harlow (slharlow@uncg.edu), co-chairs of the ACRL ULS Professional Development Committee. A full list of the committee’s past and future programs are available here.
